JERUSALEM (AP) \u2014 Israeli tanks moved deeper into the West Bank on Sunday, tightening their grip on biblical Bethlehem and five other towns in the widest operation against the Palestinians in years.

Four Palestinians \u2014 among them a 10-year-old \u2014 were killed Sunday, and the Palestinian Health Ministry said a teen-ager wounded in fighting last month died of his wounds.

The 3-day-old assault, retaliation for the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister by a radical PLO faction, drew harsh international criticism and set off disagreements within Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition government.

Some members of the moderate Labor Party threatened to bolt if the escalation continued, a move that could badly hobble the government.

In New York, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Sunday that Israel does not intend to stay in the areas it entered, according to a spokesman for Israel's U.N. Mission.

"We do not want to overthrow the Palestinian Authority," the spokesman quoted Peres as saying.

The focus of violence Sunday was Bethlehem, where Palestinians said three people were killed by Israeli gunfire \u2014 a police officer and a civilian in a nearby refugee camp and another civilian when a shell landed near a hospital.

Israel's army said, however, that Palestinians threw a bomb at an Israeli tank near the refugee camp, setting off an exchange of fire. The army said it was looking into the hospital incident.

In the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinian hospital staff said 10-year-old Ghadah Ayaseh was shot to death in her home in the nearby village of Sanoor. Two other children were wounded by Israeli fire that hit houses near an abandoned position of the Force 17 Palestinian security force, they said.

Witnesses said the Force 17 post itself was flattened by Israeli tank fire, but the military said troops opened fire with assault rifles and threw a hand grenade at an armed man near an army position in the vicinity who appeared to be planting a bomb.

The Palestinian Health Ministry also said 15-year-old Ahmed Abu Mandeel, who was shot in the chest during a clash with soldiers in the Gaza Strip on Sept. 29, died of his injuries Sunday in a hospital in Amman, Jordan, where he had been sent for treatment.

Palestinians reported two injuries in Sunday's fighting when a tank shell exploded 50 yards from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, marking the birthplace of Jesus. The Israeli military, holding tank positions several miles away, was checking the report.

Palestinian gunmen, meanwhile, opened fire from nearby Beit Jalla on the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo in a disputed part of Jerusalem, Israeli police said.

A few miles north of Jerusalem, Israeli troops also moved farther into Ramallah \u2014 the seat of Yasser Arafat's government in the West Bank \u2014 and took over the Palestinian Local Affairs Ministry.

Israeli officials said the moves were made necessary by Arafat's inaction against militant groups refusing to honor a Sept. 26 cease-fire, and dismissed as rhetoric Palestinian claims Arafat had outlawed such groups in recent days.

Palestinians say Arafat arrested 20 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which claimed responsibility for Wednesday's killing of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. The PFLP said it was avenging the Aug. 27 killing of its own leader, whom Israel accused of attacks on civilians.

"The state of Israel has the right to defend the lives of Israelis. We don't have interest in staying in Palestinian cities. That's not the goal of this activity," said Israeli Cabinet secretary Gideon Saar. "If there will be quiet, we'll pull out."

Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said the Palestinian leader told Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday that the United States must pressure Israel to withdraw. "This issue will be a test (of) the willingness of the U.S. to keep its coalition, or to sacrifice the Arabs and Muslims to satisfy" Israel, Abu Rdeneh added.

He was referring to U.S. concerns that Israeli-Palestinian fighting could hinder efforts to maintain the support of moderate Arab nations for U.S. operations against Afghanistan's Taliban government and terror suspect Osama bin Laden.

The Israeli incursions into the outskirts of six of the eight Palestinian towns in the West Bank were the most extensive since Israel began handing over land to the Palestinians in 1994 under interim peace accords.

Fighting began in September 2000 as the Palestinians and Israel's previous, more dovish government could not agree on terms for a final peace deal. Since then, 700 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 186 on the Israeli side.

At the Vatican, Pope John Paul II expressed concern about the new flare-up, saying during noon prayers that "violence is for everybody only a path of death and destruction which dishonors the holiness of God and the dignity of man."

At Sunday's weekly Cabinet session, Sharon said peace negotiations could resume only after all Palestinian violence stops, rogue militants are disarmed, militants are arrested and Zeevi's killers turned over.

Industry and Trade Minister Dalia Itzik said her Labor Party should walk out of the government over the incursions. "We are not sitting there in order to occupy territories," she told Army Radio.

But Finance Minister Silvan Shalom, from Sharon's more hawkish Likud, said Arafat should be expelled from the Palestinian territories.

A survey published Sunday showed the Israeli population no less divided. The Gallup poll, with a 4.5 percent margin of error, found 38 percent favored all-out war against the Palestinians and 38 percent preferred accelerated peace talks.